Weeks after replacing its CEO and announcing a new 50MP CMOS-equipped medium format DSLR, Hasselblad has us scratching our heads yet again. The just-announced Hasselblad HV joins the Lunar and Stellar as a restyled Sony SLT-a99 featuring 'tough as nails' PVD-coated aluminum and titanium construction for considerably more money.

Aimed at 'photographers who demand the ultimate in both style and performance' the 24MP full-frame Hasselblad HV will retail bundled with a Carl Zeiss 24-70mm F2.8 lens for €8500 (about $11,500).

Hasselblad makes a brand new style statement with its latest camera for photo-enthusiasts

Hasselblad, the iconic camera-maker favoured by many of the world's most accomplished professional photographers, has launched a brand new 'elite' camera - and this time pointed it at amateur photo-enthusiasts who demand the ultimate in both style and performance.

The sleek new Hasselblad HV, which is available immediately, will retail at € 8500 (excl taxes) and boasts some of the most advanced camera technology ever engineered for the enthusiast marketplace.

Announcing the launch Hasselblad CEO Ian Rawcliffe said: "The new HV is the latest model in our rapidly expanding portfolio of consumer cameras that seamlessly blend beauty and chic with performance. This camera is aimed squarely at people who don't just love taking pictures - but love taking them in real style. And the HV doesn't just look good; it feels good to hold too. We maintained a sharp focus on ergonomics and we used only premium materials like titanium, high-grade aluminium and latest 'tough as nails' PVD coatings."

He added: "There are growing numbers of very keen and often extremely talented amateur photographers and photo-enthusiasts all over the world that are willing to invest in the kind of high performance capture products that elite professionals enjoy. Our brand new HV DSLR will completely satisfy all those who wish to not only treat themselves to an exclusive photo-icon but also revel in crafting exceptional pictures and video with an exceptional camera.

The new and easy to use HV has a 24.3 megapixel full-frame sensor and comes with a legendary Carl Zeiss 24-70mm lens - for extreme sharpness and outstanding contrast. The camera also has 35mm full-frame HD moviemaking capability for outstanding performance, even in dark conditions.

It can also deal with extreme weather conditions (from minus 40°C up to 80° C). This lightweight case doubles as an integrated organiser to hold not just the camera, all cables and chargers, memory cards and photo-literature but also an iPad and a regular size laptop.

I had a Hasselblad X Pan once. It was a rebadged Fuji sold in Europe under the Hasselblad name. I didn´t care. I don´t think anyone who bought an X Pan cared because they were good cameras, built like tanks, that did something unique and, crucially, were priced at a level that reflected what they were - a good quality albeit niche pro camera. This on the other hand just makes me sad. If Russian oligarchs and footballers and whoever else has enough money to consider this want to be this, fair enough, it´s their business, not mine. But it makes me sad that a company who were once noted for rugged utility should now be aiming at the novelty market.

"The new HV is the latest model in our rapidly expanding portfolio of consumer cameras that seamlessly blend beauty and chic with performance. This camera is aimed squarely at people who don't just love taking pictures - but love taking them in real style"----------

Is Hasselblad is playing to its traditional strength - fashion photographers? Who else gives a good gosh darn about "style"? Or maybe those consumers who have a lot of money and would lock the thing on "A".

When did Blad decide that style was part of their brand? Their old MF cameras were anything but stylish, unless you went for industrial chic. They were heavy and clunky and would probably last forever. Probably why NASA took them to the moon!

Why they are bothering with kitsch rubbish like this is anyone's guess, bad management is mine.

The Blad brand doesn't need this, they are a MF brand and should capitalise on their reputation among fashion photographers instead of trying to sell out-of-date rubbish to people with more money than sense.

Actually, what's wrong with A99 platform? the A series core/fundamental root goes back to Minolta SLR. Hasselblad may restart back with the new CEO but need a start point.Most of the specialised part of EU marks are made by Japanese. Lenses, Electronics etc. This is digital era and Japs make the best stuff in the market from consumer to precise/specialised components.

"We know that there are never any shortcuts to quality. Quality is the result of dedication and hard work, of an unyielding commitment to excellence. No camera manufacturer comes even close to equaling the Hasselblad standard."

Restyling and rebranding another company's camera sure seems like taking a shortcut to me.

I guess, this camera was already being produced for distribution/sale before the new CEO took seat, so nothing could be done to stop or change it...Having said that, if this is the company new direction, then it's bad news, indeed! :(

It´s decadent, it´s sexy. Something like P DiddyDaddy wants to have ... a heavy golden necklace, Bentley with flame design, brass knuckles with diamonds on the left hand it, including the word "Respect!" ... and a Hasselblad HV in the right hand.

Yo man, SnappyDog owns the Lunar with elephant foreskin.

...because...

"aimed squarely at people who don't just love taking pictures - but love taking them in real style"

I once laughed because a guy I knew had spent $25,000 on one of the those special edition Leicas. He could afford it and said, "You want to talk about expensive? My wife runs show horses. The Leica is worth about 5 days of that."

Edit: A more important question, if Hasselblad is so creatively bankrupt, or so broke that they CAN'T produce a camera that is at least as good as a Sony, then why aren't they looking for a different business to be in?

Knowing how to make medium format film bodies or digital backs does not necessarily translate to making high-end APS or FF DLSR cameras or them wanting to. Example; Fuji makes some of the most expensive TV camera lenses on Earth and could easily make lenses that would trash Nikon and Canon counterparts, but they don't.

It's the customers who actually pay for this stuff that are to blame. If nobody bought this sort of stuff, Hassy would stop making them. Apparently there is enough interest and market demand for them to create them, so more power to the manufacturer. No need to get ourselves overly worked up over this; just spend money on what really matters.

Everyone seems to ridicule Hassy about this and similar cameras. But in reality, all this tells more about Sony's own attitude towards their own IP and the level of respect, service and integrity for their own users. I.e., if Hassy is able to better Sony's user experience using same components, then what was Sony's goal in the first place?

Sony probably designed their product to suit the majority of potential customers. This Hassy is clearly aimed at a very particular and minor group of customers. Most of us don't need bullet-proof construction or a beautiful exterior to improve the user experience, wouldn't you agree?

What makes you think that Hassy has bettered anything? This camera is *really* ugly, so on the design front it fails. There's a pretty good chance it fails on all other fronts as well. So not sure which improvements you're talking about, unless you think that because it is more expensive it must be better?

Hassy's *betterment plan* was to take a camera another company designed, the guts another company manufactures, coat it with an extra layer of *protection*, pair it with another company's optics and charge 2x for it? It's a joke and a sad one. Photojournalists as well as nature, sports and war photogs would be the only ones likely in the market for a camera this *heavy duty*, but at this price no shooter would want to fork over the cash with that size sensor. They tout the rebranded Pelican case as the truly environmentally-resistant component. Unless I missed something, the original body was dust and moisture resistant. Don't we get freeze-proof for our $12K? I'm going to do an edit for them: *This camera is aimed squarely at people who don't just love taking pictures - but love taking them while looking stupid* My gut tells me that the five guys who buy this paperweight won't shoot with it in public.

Hasselblad CEO Ian Rawcliffe said:"There are growing numbers of very keen and often extremely talented amateur photographers and photo-enthusiasts all over the world that are willing to invest in the kind of high performance capture products that elite professionals enjoy" . .These 'talented' amateurs better choose the A99 instead - Then keep the money in their pockets to buy good Zeiss glass.

Translation: global income inequality has created a market in which people at the top end buy things simply because they're the most expensive, and selling to them becomes a viable strategy. It's like the art market; the low end dries up, the middle stagnates, and the number of works selling for $75-100 million+ skyrockets.

I don't get the fuss over Hasselblads new line-up. I assume they have their facts straight and I assume there is indeed a growing market of people buying luxurious stuff from golden toothbrushes with unicorn hair to plasma sputter bombarded cameras machined from a block of aluminum.

Nice touch though, they removed the Sony logo from the right side of the lens barrel, and the camera reminds me of the Minolta Maxxum 9TI. They made a glaring mistake in the brochure though: they assigned the self timer/AF assist light to the jewel in the on/off button which is obviously incorrect.

This camera is so pointless. Professionals know better than to buy this over the a99, and consumers can’t afford it. Instead of partnering with Hasselblad to produce rebranded gear, Sony should develop their own mirrorless MF camera with Zeiss glass to compete with Hasselblad.

The "Haters" wouldn't have gotten anywhere with such a business model, because none of them owns a storied, high-end brand like Hasselblad.

If Hasselblad keeps this up for much longer, they will lose the prestige associated with their brand name. That means, when they get around to actually building a camera of their own (like, say, a high-end digial medium format camera), they will not be able to command the kind of gross margin required to sustain a low-volume, high-end product like a medium-format camera.

Nikon use Sony made censors for their cameras and then tweak them. Hasselblad has decided to cut manufacturing costs by using an off the shelf design by Sony. Nothing wrong in that but, in this case all they are doing is pampering the people with money. A pro wouldn't fall for the hype because he/she is already using either a top of the range DSLR or a Hasselblad which are the tools of their trades. Hasselblad have always been a top marque for professional photographers and now they are trying to get into the amateur/enthusiasts market by using rebadged Sony designed cameras, be interesting to see how that pans out.Maybe their previous CEO left because he didn't believe that's the way to go regards market strategy but there will always be people who buy stuff just to hang around their necks as baubles to show how rich they are.

Actually, Nikon does design some of their sensors, for example the D4 sensor. Those are manufactured by Renesas.They also use sensors designed and manufactured by other companies, namely Sony, Toshiba and Aptina. And those were of course designed to meet the requirements specified by Nikon.

The days of the 500C in the hands with a 250 mm lens and a magazine filled with Ektachrome or Fujicolor are long gone... and this is the final nail in the coffin. It was a fantastic ride and it came to an end, thanks largely to technology that we could not have imagined back in the day. Still, its a lovely camera for a new digital world...

Sheila Murphy took family and vacation photos for most of her life, but didn't consider herself a photographer until her daughter got her interested in black-and-white film photography. She now pursues personal projects and occasional commercial work, and cites a love of the outdoors as the starting point for much of her photography. See more of her images and find out more about her in our Q&A. See gallery

Maxime Siegler is a DPR reader who caught our eye with his contributions to our black and white Readers' Showcase. We wanted to share more of his work, and he was kind enough to answer a few questions about his photography. Find out how he stays inspired and why he's so fond of monochromatic photography. See gallery

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